Dead Squirrels, TikTok Bops and Raw Milk: The Internet Slop of 2024

Summary

Podcast Summary: "Dead Squirrels, TikTok Bops and Raw Milk: The Internet Slop of 2024"

The Opinions by The New York Times Opinion features a compelling discussion between Jessica Gross, an opinion writer for The New York Times, and Ryan Broderick, host of the Panic World Podcast and author of the Garbage Day newsletter. Released on January 1, 2025, this episode delves into the fragmented landscape of the internet in 2024, exploring how niche communities, viral trends, and digital strategies influence cultural and political dynamics.

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1. The Fragmented Internet Landscape

Jessica Gross begins by reflecting on her longstanding relationship with the internet since 2004. She highlights the dramatic shift from a time when the internet felt like a unified entity to the present day, where information is dispersed across myriad niche communities. This fragmentation poses challenges in discerning which trends are genuinely significant versus ephemeral online phenomena.

"When I can finish a hard puzzle without pins, I feel like the smartest person in the world."
— Jessica Gross, [00:15]

Gross emphasizes the difficulty of navigating the overwhelming volume of information and the struggle to identify ideas that resonate widely versus those that are confined to specific online subcultures.

2. Interview with Ryan Broderick: Sorting Internet Trends

Gross introduces Ryan Broderick, commending his ability to dissect and interpret internet trends through his podcast and newsletter. She credits him with helping to distinguish meaningful cultural shifts from superficial online “slop.”

"Join us and play all New York times [e-mail] games."
— Jessica Gross, [00:21] (Note: This line is part of the ad and was skipped in the summary.)

Broderick humorously embraces the term "slop" to describe the less impactful online content, setting the tone for their discussion on what truly matters in the digital age.

"Everything is slop."
— Ryan Broderick, [02:16]

3. Historical Context: From Gamergate to COVID Pandemic

Broderick traces the internet’s current state back to pivotal moments like Gamergate in 2014, which ignited widespread misogynistic backlash and reshaped conservative online tactics. He notes how figures like Steve Bannon leveraged online platforms to mobilize specific communities, fundamentally altering political discourse.

"Around 2014, it becomes very serious and it stays very serious, leading into Donald Trump's first presidential campaign and all of the political strife online that we've seen since."
— Ryan Broderick, [03:51]

He also points to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 as a turning point that massively expanded internet usage, overwhelming digital literacy and moderation systems. This period saw a surge in online activity that exposed the limitations of existing platform moderation.

"This is to me, the last turn off the highway would be 2020. And now we're sort of barreling down this road where no one's exactly happy with their time online."
— Ryan Broderick, [05:36]

4. Election Year Content Overload

As the conversation shifts to the 2024 election, both Gross and Broderick discuss the deluge of online content and its ambiguous impact on voter behavior. Broderick admits to misjudging the effectiveness of digital strategies, specifically the Harris campaign's heavy reliance on TikTok.

"I think that is the danger of something like what the Harris campaign did with leaning so hard into TikTok as their main broadcast vehicle, because it's not a broadcast platform."
— Ryan Broderick, [07:17]

Gross shares anecdotes of grappling with the relevance of online trends, illustrating how disconnected these phenomena can feel to those less immersed in digital spaces.

"I had to explain to her, and it sounded like I was a crazy person."
— Jessica Gross, [14:00]

5. Case Study: Peanut the Squirrel Meme

One of the episode's highlights is the exploration of the Peanut the Squirrel meme, a seemingly absurd online story that Broderick adeptly dissects to reveal deeper cultural undercurrents. He details how a simple animal rescue story spiraled into a significant conservative talking point, exemplifying the internet's capacity to amplify minor events into major cultural symbols.

"Peanut the squirrel is a perfect example of the way America's conservative movement processes things now."
— Ryan Broderick, [12:30]

Gross supplements this with her own characterization of the phenomenon, coining the term “squirrelfluencer” to describe the influencer-like status Peanut inadvertently attained.

6. Implications for Politics and Future Trends

The discussion extends to the broader political implications of such internet-driven phenomena. Broderick raises concerns about how online fragmentation and the rise of alternative social media platforms could shape future political strategies and discourse.

"If the country's liberal and progressive and leftist activists are all on a platform that is not on the one owned by Elon Musk, who's now hanging out at Mar-a-Lago every week, how will those forces interact online?"
— Ryan Broderick, [13:06]

Gross ponders the alienation felt by individuals outside these digital enclaves, highlighting the growing divide between online influencers and offline communities.

"There’s just a way in which you sound absolutely unhinged when you try to explain an entire Internet phenomenon to an offline person."
— Jessica Gross, [14:00]

7. Conclusion: The Inescapable Nature of Digital Influence

As the episode wraps up, both hosts reflect on the pervasive yet often unmanageable influence of the internet on daily life and politics. Broderick candidly admits the fleeting nature of online discourse, suggesting that much of what occurs online may soon become irrelevant.

"Everything I write about will not matter pretty soon. So I think you're right."
— Ryan Broderick, [14:44]

Gross and Broderick agree on the necessity for individuals to navigate this complex digital landscape thoughtfully, recognizing both its potential and its pitfalls.

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Notable Quotes:

• "When I can finish a hard puzzle without pins, I feel like the smartest person in the world." — Jessica Gross, [00:15]

• "Everything is slop." — Ryan Broderick, [02:16]

• "Peanut the squirrel is a perfect example of the way America's conservative movement processes things now." — Ryan Broderick, [12:30]

• "There’s just a way in which you sound absolutely unhinged when you try to explain an entire Internet phenomenon to an offline person." — Jessica Gross, [14:00]

• "Everything I write about will not matter pretty soon." — Ryan Broderick, [14:44]

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Key Takeaways:

• Internet Fragmentation: The internet has evolved from a unified space to a fragmented ecosystem dominated by personalized content streams tailored by algorithms on platforms like TikTok, YouTube, and X (formerly Twitter).

• Impact of Historical Events: Events such as Gamergate and the COVID-19 pandemic have significantly influenced online behaviors, moderation challenges, and political mobilization.

• Election Dynamics: The 2024 election showcased the complexities of digital campaigning, where traditional strategies may fall short in the face of unpredictable online trends.

• Viral Phenomena as Political Tools: Instances like the Peanut the Squirrel meme illustrate how minor events can be amplified into major political symbols, reflecting broader cultural tensions.

• Future of Online Discourse: The rise of alternative social media platforms and ongoing fragmentation pose questions about the future interplay between digital spaces and political activism.

This episode of The Opinions offers an insightful examination of the tangled web of internet culture, its influence on politics, and the challenges of navigating an increasingly segmented digital world. Whether you're an avid online participant or an observer from the sidelines, the conversation provides valuable perspectives on understanding what truly matters in the ever-evolving landscape of the internet.

Transcript

[Jessica Gross]

New York Times games make me feel like I'm amazing.

[Ryan Broderick]

Wordle makes me feel things that I don't feel from anyone else.

[Jessica Gross]

I absolutely love Spelling Bee.

[Ryan Broderick]

The Times crossword puzzle is a companion that I've had longer than anyone outside of my immediate family.

[Jessica Gross]

When I can finish a hard puzzle without pins, I feel like the smartest person in the world.

[Ryan Broderick]

When I have to look up a.

[Jessica Gross]

Clue to help me, I'm learning something new. It gives me joy every single day. Join us and play all New York times [e-mail] games.

[Unknown Host]

This is the Opinions, a show that brings you a mix of voices from New York Times opinion. You've heard the news. Here's what to make of it.

[Jessica Gross]

I'm Jessica Gross and I am an opinion writer for the New York Times. When I started working on the Internet in 2004, I felt like you could really read the entire Internet every day. And now I don't feel like that at all. There's way too much information. It is fragmented among niche communities and as a mom and also a journalist who writes about the Internet a lot, it feels like it's impossible to know what to focus on. Is this an idea that one person believes or is this an idea that a million people believe? Trends go viral really quickly, but that doesn't necessarily make them important. There was something about the election happening that really highlighted how much people are struggling to understand what is happening on the Internet and whether or not it's important. What is just Internet rage baiting and what is actually a cultural trend that we need to pay attention to. How do we figure out what really matters? And that is why I'm very excited to talk to Ryan Broderick today. He is the host of the Panic World Podcast and writes a newsletter called Garbage Day. It is about the intersection of pop culture and the Internet. He has covered topics such as Peanut the squirrel and whether there can be a Joe Rogan of the left. He's been such a helpful guide in sorting out what's a significant cultural trend from what is just slop.

[Ryan Broderick]

I love that word.

[Jessica Gross]

Everything is slop.

[Ryan Broderick]

Dude. Slop is so good. I love calling stuff slop. It feels so good.

[Jessica Gross]

Welcome Ryan. I'm so excited to talk to you today.

[Ryan Broderick]

Thank you for having me.

[Jessica Gross]

So I feel like what I am getting on the Internet in my bespoke TikTok that I spend way too much time on for a 42 year old woman. What I am seeing may not be reflective of any larger trends. So what am I missing? What is the mainstream media missing that we should be paying more attention to.

[Ryan Broderick]

Well, I think ironically, you are having the normal experience right now, which is the Internet, let's say five, ten years ago was a couple central feeds that everyone could kind of stare at and understand what's going on. The era of Gangnam Style, for instance, the Internet post pandemic is one now of fragments. So your TikTok is delivering exactly what you want to see. Your YouTube is doing the same. Your Instagram now is also doing the same. X is showing you what Elon Musk wants you to see. All of these different platforms have shifted to a very personalized delivery mechanism rather than everyone looks at Peanut the Squirrel, Only a few people know about Peanut the Squirrel until it becomes a national news story. So it's a very different landscape than it used to be.

[Jessica Gross]

So this is a good way to transition to the how we got here question and then also talk about the Peanut the Squirrel meme. And so let's start with how we got here. And then we can talk about how all of this plays into the election and its outcomes and the vibes.

[Ryan Broderick]

How did we get here? Let's see. I would timestamp it 2014 with the rise of online movements like Gamergate, which started as a pretty contained controversy about video game journalism, that ballooned out into this wider misogynistic right wing moral panic that would go on to influence the way conservative politics essentially have functioned ever since. And this is the same time where people like Steve Bannon, he did interviews where he said that I hired Milo Yiannopoulos to go onto sites like Reddit and 4chan to learn what men who like video games were angry about so that we could write content for them. They were very upfront about it. And up until that point, I mean, there was even like a meme which was you. You would say the Internet is serious business. And the joke was that it wasn't. And then around 2014, it becomes very serious and it stays very serious, leading into Donald Trump's first presidential campaign and all of the political strife online that we've seen since. The other sor of important moment I think would be 2020, which I would say is the last moment where the people who weren't online became online because they were in COVID lockdown. So my family started a group chat. We didn't have one before. This is where everyone starts to use the Internet at once. And so digital media literacy kind of goes out the window really fast. And that's also the moment where a lot of major platforms that we were using started having a lot of trouble moderating those spaces, which they'd always had trouble moderating. But it became really apparent at that. And that's. To me, the last turn off the highway would be 2020. And now we're sort of barreling down this road where no one's exactly happy with their time online, even the people running the websites that we're using, but we're still all on them and they're still important.

[Jessica Gross]

And it does seem a little bit like the companies have given up on moderation for the most part.

[Ryan Broderick]

Yeah. I do wonder if it was something to do with the insurrection and sort of companies like Meta and Google looking at this and going, we're out. We're going to bring in AI and it'll moderate itself because we don't want to deal with this. But I don't know, the vibe is that, yeah, I don't get the sense that they want to keep these places running smoothly anymore.

[Jessica Gross]

That brings us to this year, another election year where there was a lot. Just so much content.

[Ryan Broderick]

So much content.

[Jessica Gross]

Just so much content.

[Ryan Broderick]

And some of it good. I actually, there was a brief moment in August where I was like, I'm having fun online again for the first time in a while.

[Jessica Gross]

I mean, some of the. The songs. I'm a never. I'm a never Trump guy I'm a never Trump guy I'm a never Trump.

[Ryan Broderick]

Guy I never liked him. I'm a never Trump guy I'm a.

[Jessica Gross]

Never Trump guy I'm a never Trump like brain worms. That was a good song.

[Ryan Broderick]

I hate, I hate. I hate to admit this, I hate to say it, but the he. They're eating the cats, they're eating the dogs Tick Tock remix Pretty funny. They're eating the dogs, they're eating the cats Eat the cat, Eat the cat, they're eating the cat.

[Jessica Gross]

Those were bangers. So all of this was happening, right? And I think a lot of people, myself included, were trying to grasp at whether it was meaningful at all. Did it reflect the voting preferences or interests of anybody?

[Ryan Broderick]

Right.

[Jessica Gross]

Can you talk to me about what you saw and whether any of it actually meant anything in retrospect?

[Ryan Broderick]

I mean, I will be up front. I. I called it wrong. I. I was feeling the Harris campaign almost up until the very last moment, and I was particularly impressed with a lot of their digital strategy. And I think I was making the same mistake that they did, which was that I was over indexing the same way they were over indexing the importance of TikTok. And you had said earlier, you know, TikTok is giving you this very personalized portal. And I think that is the danger of something like what the Harris campaign did with leaning so hard into TikTok as their main broadcast vehicle, because it's not a broadcast platform. It just isn't. That said, I think they were able to capture the zeitgeist quite well. The the Republicans are weird line. I was a huge fan of. I am also a Sega fanboy, so Tim Walls was like, absolute catnip for me. Harsh. So there was a game similar to it, Crazy Taxi, and oh, my God, I don't know if you've ever seen it.

[Jessica Gross]

Yeah.

[Ryan Broderick]

But I'm going to come on here in a minute. Here we go ahead and loved the way they were sort of playing with culture, and then come election day, and you discover it didn't really matter. And I've been looking through the wreckage, reading different interviews and listening to different postmortems, trying to figure out what I got wrong there and why I was so taken by it. And I have to think it's because it was hitting millennial nostalgia so perfectly that I think I was swept up in it. And when you look at how people voted, Gen Z overwhelmingly voted for Trump.

[Jessica Gross]

Not the women, but the men.

[Ryan Broderick]

But the men.

[Jessica Gross]

Yeah.

[Ryan Broderick]

And so then the question becomes like, you know, and I've seen a lot of things about Joe Rogan and different sort of manosphere podcasts, Andrew Tate, all this stuff. I'm not convinced. I'm not convinced. But there was definitely a disconnect, and no one on the left, liberal, progressive side seemed to catch it.

[Jessica Gross]

So part of what I love about your newsletter is the name that it's called, Garbage Day. Because that's what I feel like I'm doing most days on the Internet is just picking through the garbage and collecting things that might be interesting. I know I keep bringing up Peanut the Squirrel, because that was one of my favorites that you did. I laughed out loud. Uh, I was like, this is so stupid that I can't imagine sitting down and trying to understand what is going on. So tell me how you got on that story.

[Ryan Broderick]

Okay.

[Jessica Gross]

And how you explained that story.

[Ryan Broderick]

Sure. Uh, so I'm still on X because some very important rich people are still on it. It's sort of like if you took the American Conservative and put them in the worst, jankiest message board and just let them fight with each other, and sometimes they get fixated on really weird stuff. And I noticed that they were Just melting down about a squirrel that had died. And I was like, okay, let's piece together who started this. Why did this squirrel become important? How did it become a conservative martyr? And then try to come up with some sort of larger explanation for why Elon Musk spent the weekend talking about a dead squirrel. Right.

[Jessica Gross]

And so just to recap for people who miss this blip in the Internet, Peanut was a squirrel that was suspected of having rabies.

[Ryan Broderick]

No. Okay, I got this.

[Jessica Gross]

No. Okay.

[Ryan Broderick]

So there's a guy in upstate New York, he adopted Peanut, a squirrel, and resuscitated the squirrel, brought it back to health, and then started an Instagram account for the squirrel.

[Jessica Gross]

I started calling him a squirrelfluencer.

[Ryan Broderick]

Squirrelfluencer is really good. That's super good. Yeah. So the squirrelfluence, the squirrel fluencer, was making so much money off of Peanut and Peanut's content that they adopted a raccoon and then they were able to start an animal sanctuary. A neighbor appears to have reported the squirrelfluencer for not having the proper licenses to have Peanut. So wildlife control, I guess, raids the house and seizes the raccoon and the squirrel. And during the raid, Peanut freaks out and bites one of the officers. And because of that, they had to, quote, unquote, destroy the squirrel and the raccoon. And this, according to right wing influencers, was a perfect example of liberal communist, if you will, government overreach. And then Peanut became sort of this great. This great martyr for the right.

[Jessica Gross]

Peanut died for our sins.

[Ryan Broderick]

Yes.

[Jessica Gross]

So I am going to make the argument that Peanut the squirrel actually does have long lasting implications. And talk me through it, Talk me through it because it reminds me of the whole MAHA movement. Right? So RFK Jr. And the idea, make America Healthy again. Make America healthy Again. And the idea that there's a whole group of people who find regulations on any health related behaviors, whether it's for animals or humans, to be onerous and a violation of their liberty. So I feel like getting upset about Peanut the squirrel is also getting upset about the fact that you can't drink raw milk from the spigot every day.

[Ryan Broderick]

I think you're dead on.

[Jessica Gross]

Okay.

[Ryan Broderick]

And I also think that Peanut the squirrel is a perfect example of the way America's conservative movement processes things now, which I've sort of been thinking of as like, okay, they're essentially running a tabloid, so they're always looking for these little human interest stories that they can spin up into massive controversies. And Peanut the squirrel is a perfect example of that.

[Jessica Gross]

So going forward, what does this mean for our politics? Not just in this instance with Peanut the Squirrel, but about other things? Is it just the way we're going to process politics going forward and we need to adapt to it?

[Ryan Broderick]

The two big question marks I have are Trump entering the White House, which created so much chaos and calamity last time, that I've sort of just thrown out any plans I have for next year because it was a sprint for four years. The other question mark here is the ascendancy of Blue sky and this larger fascination with sort of open source social media platforms. There is clearly an interesting in alternative online spaces, away from Elon Musk, away from Meta, away from sort of corporate overreach. And we don't know how those two things are going to interact. If the country's liberal and progressive and leftist activists are all on a platform that is not on the one owned by Elon Musk, who's now hanging out at Mar a Lago every week, how will those forces interact online? But I do think you're right that we are definitely hitting some kind of wall with this sort of stuff. I just don't think the average person has the time to be like, okay, I'm going to read five things about Peanut the Squirrel to understand what's going on.

[Jessica Gross]

I mean, I heard about Biden dropping out of the race when I was at a park with a bunch of other parents and our kids. And there was a mom who is a hairdresser. She's very offline, and she was like, why are people talking about coconuts? And I had to explain to her, and it sounded like I was a crazy person. And I was just like, none of this matters. I mean, there's just a way in which you sound absolutely unhinged when you try to explain an entire Internet phenomenon to an offline person.

[Ryan Broderick]

It's like describing a dream, truly. And I think you're right. I just think that at a certain point, enough people are gonna be like, I sound ridiculous and I don't care about this anymore.

[Jessica Gross]

Right, right, right. Well, I think that's a good place to end here.

[Ryan Broderick]

That's right. Everything I write about will not matter pretty soon. So I think you're right.

[Jessica Gross]

Thank you so much for talking with me today. It has been so much fun.

[Ryan Broderick]

Thank you for having me. This is a blast.

[Unknown Host]

If you like this show, follow it on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts. This show is produced by Derek Arthur, Sofia Alvarez Boyd Vishaka Durba, Phoebe Lett, Christina Samulewski and Gillian Weinberger. It's edited by Kari Pitkin, Alison Bruzek and Annie Rose Strasser. Engineering, mixing and original music by Isaac Jones, sonia Herrero, Pat McCusker, Carol Saburo and Afim Shapiro. Additional music by Amin Sahota. The Fact Checked team is Kate Sinclair, Mary, Marge Locker and Michelle Harris. Audience strategy by Shannon Busta, Christina Samulewski and Adrian Rivera. The executive producer of Times Opinion Audio is Annie Rose Dresser.